From: ag725@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Rick Scaia)
Subject: [INFO] The News From Dayton -- 09/09/96
Date: 1996/09/08
Message-ID: <50vcnp$glb@freenet-news.carleton.ca>
Sender: ag725@freenet2.carleton.ca (Rick Scaia)
Organization: The National Capital FreeNet
Reply-To: ag725@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Rick Scaia)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling
Yep... it's another "News From Dayton," kids. And I know what
you ALL want to know: what's up with Razor and Diesel is what
you want to know. Well, you'll have to read on, because Alex Marvez's
Dayton Daily News column did not cover this story. But I will later
on in the NFD. Enjoy:
* Top story is that on the heel of the Giant being turned to join
the NWO (this a last second decision because Bulldog decided
to accept an offer from the WWF -- that's right, he accepted
that offer, and was not trying pull one over on Vince... as
soon as he made the decision that being a heel tag team
champion for Titan was a more attractive future than being
a job boy for Hogan's NWO, he finalized the deal, and there
were no lawyerly tricks involved -- and because the 1-2-3 Kid
Sean Waltman was deemed too small), Bischoff and the WCW boys
have already cemented the sixth member of the NWO. It will
be Bam Bam Bigelow. The Bammer is likely the "mystery man"
that Herb (in his TidBits) said Dave Meltzer was reporting
on booking sheets starting later this month in Columbus, OH.
Bigelow coming in will give WCW another "disposable" member
of the NWO, so that while Nash, Hogan, and the Giant never
do jobs, Hall and Bam Bam can put over WCW stars. On a side
bar to the Giant turn, Marvez said that he found Giant's
monolouge/interview at the end of Nitro to be overly long,
and WELCOMED Hogan's cutting him off. Personally, I thought
the Giant was on a roll, and Hogan cutting him off was lame.
Marvez is the first opposing voice I've heard on that matter.
* Kevin Greene mimmicked the Flair Strut after notching two sacks in
Carolina Panthers' game last Sunday. This is being done to
build "hometown" heat between Flair (a resident of Charlotte),
and Greene (who came to Charlotte to join the Panthers "without
getting Flair's permission" as the story goes). Flair regularly
attends Panthers' home games.
* ECW was pre-empted on 8/31 here in Ohio because a high school football
game ran late. Hopefully, this won't be an ongoing problem.
SportsChannel will continue to have ECW TV in the 2a.m. timeslot.
* Alex remains busy with his day job (covering the Cincinnati Bengals
for the Dayton Daily News), but still tries to keep us online
fans up to date as much as possible. Alex maintains the "Body
Slams" folder in the America OnLine GrandStand wrestling area,
and is available via e-mail at "Alex1Marv@aol.com" or at
"alex_marvez@dni.com".
Now onto other news, usually reported elsewhere first (by such sources
as the inestimable MiCasa's Daily News, the Bagpipe Report, NewzFirst,
and many others who do a better job of updating the fans *on a daily
basis* than I do -- all of them have links from places on this page,
so I suggest you visit/e-mail them!):
* Alright, alright, alright... Razor and Diesel -- where are they
going? The answer is that without a doubt Razor Ramon and
Diesel will be back in the WWF by the end of September. The
hitch is that Scott Hall and Kevin Nash are still gonna be
in WCW at the time. Now, there is always a possibility of
the utterly bizarre and improbable taking place, but it would
take something straight out of the Twilight Zone to land
Nash and Hall back home. You see, at the same time Jim Ross
dropped his bomb on the wrestling world on Friday Night's
USA Network Special, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall were preparing
for their night's work at a WCW house show in Shreveport, LA;
MiCasa had an interesting sidebar to that night's events, as
it seems the trash-throwing fans got under Nash's skin, causing
him, along with Hall and the Giant, to leave the ring until
things settle down. It seems highly unlikely that
they could be hyped as returning by one promotion while
still wrestling house shows for another. This does not even
take into account the rumored long-term nature of their
contracts with WCW. So where does that leave us? Well, Titan
is either using their trademark rights to the names of
"Big Daddy Cool, Diesel" and "The Bad Guy, Razor Ramon" to
make a point in regards to their pending lawsuit against
Turner (which, despite what you may have read elsewhere, has
NOT been settled... only one small part of the suit has been
settled, but the lion's share of litigating remains to be
done, according to published reports). They may simply
be using these tradenames to create interest in a mini-angle
that will likely go nowhere. Another option is that other
performers may be hired to play the Diesel and Razor Ramon
roles; at this point, what form this would take is purely
speculation. Titan could take two jobbers and have them
portray the roles to diminish the importance of Diesel and
Razor's stints in the WWF. Titan could have two cheesy
actors take on the roles and have mini-skits like the
Billionaire Ted/Huckster/Nacho Man vignettes of earlier
this year. There are many possibilities, and it's not all
that easy to pick among them. Personally, I'm not against
using the Diesel and Razor trademarks for a quick bit of
comic relief or parody. But the way Jim Ross has been
building this up (staking his trusted/insider reputation on
this report both on TV and on the WWF hotline) could easily
backfire. Convincing the fans to tune in so that they can
see Diesel and Razor, and then delivering anyone but Hall
and Nash, could alienate more viewers than continuing to
take the "high road" has. This is not to say that there
are not any plausible *and* interesting ways Titan could
play this off without delivering Hall and Nash; but it is a word
of caution that building this thing up like they are and then
delivering something as utterly harmless as the Huckster skits
will not work. There better be a big payoff at the end of this
angle... it doesn't have to be Nash and Hall big, but it better
satisfy the fans.
* Now, I've told you what I know, and then what I think. It seems
that *most* of the other online sources have heard the same
things and reached the same conclusion. MiCasa, in particular,
has had input from his readers (including many lawyers/law
students) which all seems to point to this being a ruse by
Titan. However, the Bagpipe Report's affiliated news page,
SCOOPS, is reporting that TBR/SCOOPS has discovered that it
is not only the Diesel/Razor characters that are returning,
but rather Nash and Hall themselves. They report that this
is an offshoot of a court settlement reached by Titan and
Turner, and that to provide Hall and Nash with salaries
comparable to their WCW earnings, the WWF has mortgaged their
Stamford, CT, headquarters building. The major hole in this
story is that while Titan Tower was indeed mortgaged, it was
mortgaged for $5 million years ago. This is *not* a new move
by Titan to increase short term cash flow; this is something
that happened in the past, and is being mis-reported as a
current event. I guess the only conclusion we can really
draw from this whole mess is that we all need to tune into
both Monday Night shows this week to find out what's up.
If this is the ruse most people think it is, then Nitro ought
to start out at 8pm pronto with a NWO Paid Advertisement in
which Hall and Nash say that things are going so well for them
in their new home, the NWO, that they have no plans on leaving
anytime soon. [Side note: the school of thought that believe
Nash and Hall are coming back home have missed one very
plausible argument that could add fuel to their theory...
I have to believe that as long as Shawn Michaels is the top
dog in the WWF, he would have sufficient clout to stop Vince
from doing anything that would damage his friends' careers.
In this case, that would mean he would have the power to keep
Vince from making a total mockery of Diesel and Razor Ramon.
It might mean that whatever this is building to is not
the silly waste of time many are guessing it will be.
While this is far from fact, it is an interesting thing to
consider if you are dead set on finding ways that Nash and
Hall could be back in the WWF by the end of the month.]
* If you did hear it elsewhere, the WWF/AOL GrandStand debacle of
last weekend has been settled. The story is that Titan merely
asked that one message containing false information regarding
rumored weekly PPV shows be removed for a GS forum. Somehow
between Titan's mouth and the GrandStand's ears, the message
must have been contorted, because the GS wound up thinking
it had to remove all WWF-oriented discussion boards from its
forum. Subsequent upheavals among fans resulted in the WWF
(through R. Lee Barstow -- or WWFBarstow@aol.com -- one of
the more visable online representatives of TitanSports) making
a statement that they at no time were attempting to censor the
fans, and were sorry things had progressed this far. All
WWF area were re-instated to the AOL GS shortly thereafter.
While I still questioned the fact that Titan thought it should
be allowed to simply strike from the record any comment that
contained false info (rather than leaving that false statement
on the record, and instead going on record with the TRUTH),
WWFBarstow took another step later in the week the convinced
me that maybe the anti-censorship words in the message he posted
were more than lip service: he contacted The Bagpipe Report and
offered to be their link to factual, insider information about
the WWF/TitanSports whenever he could. His letter to the Bagpipe
Report is available at their website in (I believe) Edition
#104 (or maybe #103).
* Odd rumor that I keep hearing from a myriad of places: Arn Anderson
and Hulk Hogan had it out in a locker room incident last week.
It did come to blows, and it is now being speculated that fall
out from the blow-up will include Arn Anderson's departure from
WCW. His last appearance could come at WarGames (if true, you
might expect him to do a job... perhaps even be stretchered out).
* Undertaker was legitimately hospitalized following an infection
of his elbow. The infection stemmed from a laceration that he
sustained on SummerSlam weekend in the Boiler Room Brawl against
Mankind. However, it was while wrestling in Puerto Rico last
week that the cut became sufficiently infected to require
emergency medical attention. He was released from a hospital
back here in the states on Friday, and is not currently expected
to miss any major WWF shows (such as the upcoming Philly PPV).
* The second unoppossed Nitro matched its previous week's rating of
4.3. This week, the first hour scored a 4.0, with the second
hour (against Monday Night Football) did a 4.6. While again
these ratings don't stack up to what Titan pulled in when
unopposed in May (RAW pulled a 4.7 for one week's show), it
needs to be noted that the very popular Dallas Cowboys were
playing on MNF, and Nitro *still* gained viewers in the second
hour. Traditionally, the months where MNF is on the air have
meant slightly lower ratings for Monday night wrestling. It
will be interesting to see what the market can sustain once
both shows are back on the air against football.
* By the way, the 1-2-3 Kid Sean Waltman *did* get his release from
Titan finalized. Some are saying he won't pop up in WCW/NWO
for a while now, others say he may debut tommorrow night on
Nitro, and still others suggest that whenever he does debut
he won't be part of the NWO at all. Time will tell.
* Here are the dates for WWF PPVs ranging as far into the future as
is possible for a schmuck like myself:
In Your House -- Philadelphia, PA -- September 22, 1996
In Your House -- Indianapolis, IN -- October 20, 1996
Survivor Series -- MSG, New York City -- November 17, 1996
In Your House -- Lakeland, FL -- December 15, 1996
Royal Rumble -- San Antonio, TX -- January 12 (or 19?), 1997
WrestleMania 13 -- Chicago, IL -- late March/early April '97
--
Rick Scaia | I'm on the Web now!
RSPW Posse Minister of OFFENSE | http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~ag725/
ag725@freenet.carleton.ca | Prepare to be Disappointed!!!
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